Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Those of you with Android devices won't want to miss our first android app, TempoPerfect, now available as a free app on Google Play. TempoPerfect is a free metronome app for musicians, providing a clear and precise beat that is also available for Windows and iPhone users, making it easy to always have a metronome on hand for reference from practicing your guitar at home to a jam session with your garage band.

This is just the beginning of our Android plans, so stay on the lookout for more apps in the coming months including the long awaited Pocket Dictate and WavePad audio editor which is popular on any platform.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

My motivation for creating digital music is that the music I want to hear doesn’t exist yet, so I have to create it myself. I was looking for extreme break-core music and although I appreciate the work of musical artists like Bong-Ra, Drumcorps, Babylon Disco, Atari Teenage Riot, and Aphex Twin, I wasn’t able to find anything extreme enough to satisfy my desire for the ultimate in extreme electronic music, so it looked like it was up to me to try to create the sounds I was looking for.

Although the technology has existed for a few years to perform this task, the software has often been expensive, and required a significant amount of time to put towards learning how to use the software with any kind of proficiency.

I originally discovered NCH Software’s WavePad audio editing software through a general search for “Edit MP3s” on Cnet.com because I wanted to edit out the silence associated with many “Unlisted Tracks” on albums released by self-indulgent artists and play long, unnecessary silent periods.

While I was editing out those silences, I noticed that WavePad offered many other options to copy, save clips and to combine clips, so I began to assemble a sample library and experiment with mixing clips.

The single-track mixing offered by WavePad was prohibitive when I started thinking about compiling a full-length song, so I decided to try out NCH Software’s MixPad multi-track audio software. The interface of MixPad was simple to master and after only a couple missteps I was able to easily put together my clips in the way that I wanted to create new songs from the clips I had compiled.

A tip for new users: Don’t try to add all of your clips to your project at the same time or it will all play at the same time as an un-listenable jumble of sound. Add them one at a time and ease them into the sequence for the desired effect.

When I had a completed song, I wanted to post it to my YouTube account to share, but I wanted to create something visually stimulating to accompany the song so it wouldn’t be accompanied by a blank black screen. First I tried to use Windows Movie Maker, which I used to great effect when I was running Windows Vista, unfortunately, with my new laptop running Windows 7, Microsoft simplified the interface for Windows Movie Maker so much that it was impossible to do what I wanted. Since I had a positive experience with NCH Software so far, I downloaded their VideoPad video editing software.

VideoPad had all of the usability that older versions of Windows Movie Maker used to have so after about an hour of fumbling and playing around I was well on my way to creating the videos I wanted to make. Also it’s a relief that VideoPad has all of the effects and transitions making it possible to do some pretty amazing things.

Using Microsoft Paint and a 4,000 font package I downloaded for free from Cnet.com I was able to create a tribute to the title sequence to Gaspar Noe’s “Enter the Void” to accompany a re-mix I made while compiling a sample library from the discography of Japanese extreme pop music band Melt Banana:

Granted, it took a little time to figure out. But what probably took the film-maker thousands of dollars and weeks of time to put together I was able to do in a couple hours by myself using VideoPad.

My ultimate goal for this project is to put together an album of extreme digital music and to put together a band to perform the music live, kind of like Nine Inch Nails in concert was a live cover band for music created by Trent Reznor. I also want to create a video presentation to play behind the band to supplement the audio/video experience of the live show as I’ve seen done by Nine Inch Nails, KMFDM, and Neurosis.

To be perfectly honest, anyone can do what I’m doing with the NCH Software suite. All you need is the time and effort required to mix-down and sample your music library and the aesthetic sensibility to see how you would prefer that the samples be rearranged to suit your preference. So if you’re thinking about purchasing software from NCH Software, I say, don’t hesitate. The pros of this software are too many to list and the cons are so few that they are dwarfed by the incredible flexibility of the pros.

The only minor problem I have is with WavePad, and that I am not able to load an entire album of songs for editing down at the same time, but editing an album in ten song groups is a small price to pay for being able to capture whatever sample you want from whatever song you want and to be able to amplify and reduce noise on any sample.

The NCH Software suite has made it possible for me to easily create the music that I want to hear and I would recommend it to anyone interested in creating their own digital music without a moment of hesitation.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Recording is another commonly needed feature. If you are anything like my family you have lots of things you save and hold on to and recording software is just one way to create digital copies of things you want. From recording voice overs and audio dictation to music and videos we have the software that you need. Whether you are digitizing a recording you have on another media, like a vinyl record or VHS tape, or recording something brand new, browse our complete recording software collection for the program perfect for your recording needs.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Not only is it fun for us to learn about see or listen to the audio and video projects that people create with NCH Software products, we also enjoy hearing and seeing what people think about and have to say about our software. When we stumbled upon a comic in a Japanese blog introducing readers to our VideoPad video editing software we contacted the creator and asked for permission to share a translated version with our readers. So take a look at the translated VideoPad comic below.

For those of you who are curious or know Japaenese you can view the original and read more of his thoughts on VideoPad in his blog, Try! Various things! (チャレンジ！いろいろ！). While you're there scroll to the bottom of the post to watch his test video showing some of the things that VideoPad is capable of.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Sometimes, your job title doesn't always necessarily explain the full extent of what you do. Personally, I'm a freelance web designer (and have been since 1996). But a great portion of my job is about doing things that have very little to do with design itself.

For example, one role I often find myself taking on is that of a teacher. Whenever I create a website that my clients will update themselves, I have to teach them how the process works. Sometimes it can be difficult to get my point across. It's especially hard when clients don't have much experience with technology.

For awhile, I offered manuals to my clients to use as a reference material. While that helped, it certainly wasn't as interactive as their website's content management system. I felt that I really had to find a better way of communicating.

The idea of "screencasting," or recording my screen with a voice-over, came to me. If my clients can see what I'm doing on my screen and can hear my explanations of how to accomplish specific tasks, it could be of great benefit to all of us.

Probably my favorite part of Debut is that I can simply plug in my headset microphone, open up the software and start recording. That's really all there is to it. Within a half hour, I've created a few short tutorials that will help my clients. I've saved a ton of travel time and my client has an interactive reference that illustrates exactly how to update their website. It's hard to put a price on that kind of convenience.

Eric Karkovack is a freelance web designer with well over a decade of experience. He designs and maintains websites for clients in a wide range of industries. For more information, visit him on the web at www.karks.com

Monday, September 10, 2012

Dakinane provides support for schools to integrate information and communications technology into their classes and programs through staff training, facilitation and consultation services. Last week Dakinane featured WavePad on their website, looking specifically at the iOS version, saying that "this app can enable students to take recordings in the field or whilst roving around the school, great for podcasting etc." And since the audio recordings and edited audio are easy to email and share with other applications, the WavePad Audio Editing App can also be a stepping stone for embedding audio in wikis, blogs, websites or other learning management systems.

Friday, September 7, 2012

The editors at CNET recently took the time to review our Prism Video Converter. As they mention, digital videos are great until you run into one that you can't use or watch, which is when video converting software comes to the rescue. And what more could you look for in a converter than "a straightforward, efficient tool for video conversion," as the editors at CNET described Prism in their 5 star review, going on to say:

"Prism Video File Converter has an attractive, intuitive interface that we had no trouble figuring out ... Converting a video -- or batch of videos -- is as simple as navigating to the desired files, adding them to the list of files to convert, and selecting the desired output format."
– CNET

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

If you are looking for a fast solution you have come to the right place. Just like our efforts to provide you with easy-to-use software, we are constantly striving to improve our programs so that they can get you up and running quickly. From speedy downloads, fast installations, quick start guides and wizards a lot of thought goes into getting you as close to the solution you were looking for in three minutes. For example, you can download any of our file converters and go from download to converted in minutes, if not seconds, because who has time to waste learning a program when what you really want is a file in a different format?

If you are not just looking for a fast solution but something that will speed up other day to day tasks we have a few programs that fit that bill as well. Take FastFox Text Expander Software, which allows you to set up your own shortcuts and macros to help you zip through typing or repeated tasks on your computer. Or any transcriptionist can tell you how much time they can save by using Express Scribe Transcription Playback Software when typing from an audio file, and that is just scratching the surface. For more Quick Software solutions be sure to check out the entire NCH Software collection.